NORTHBRIDGE

Perth’s MISFIT DISTRICT, NORTHBRIDGE, has matured into a hipster’s PARADISE that BUZZES well into the night. Having long loved its many facets, FLEUR BAINGER revisits.

PERTH’S NORTHBRIDGE IS A PLACE that divides people. Locals who have never been to the inner-city hub are put off by its reputation as a seedy zone that attracts society’s fringe-dwellers. Those who do frequent its street art-splashed laneways, bars and boutiques are puzzled by the bogeyman hype, revelling in the creative spirit that mainstream neglect often gives rise to. Much like Sydney’s Kings Cross and Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, Northbridge’s rough edges have been softened. Its sex shops, strip clubs, beer barns and kebab takeaways still exist, but a low-grade gentrification has seen small bars with a cool-but-communal feel sneak into buildings with long backstories. Home-grown designers sell their wares in rehabilitated shop spaces and restaurants inhabit former Chinese laundries, hairdressers and knock shops. But if you turned back the clock 188 years, you’d find nothing but freshwater swampland here. Traditionally used by aboriginal Noongar people for food and ceremony, the saturated earth was leveraged by early Chinese arrivals for market gardens in the mid-19th century. The interconnected lake system even dictated the early suburb’s grid, with streets angled to accommodate the waterways. In the 1860s, convict labour was used to drain them and permanent settlement began. The feverish 1890s gold rush fuelled the construction of grand hotels, WA’s first shopping arcade, elite private schools and enviable residences housing the wealthy, including the state’s Attorney-General. Greek and Macedonian immigration before the First World War fuelled Northbridge’s multicultural flavour just as the upper class was moving out to Perth’s river-gazing western suburbs. Gambling dens, clubs, cafes and restaurants joined their grocery stores as the Italian wave hit the inner city after the Second World War, setting in motion the area’s reputation for entertainment. All the while, Asian butchers, grocers, herbalists, bakeries and restaurants were popping up along William and Roe Streets, creating the Chinatown that still exists today. The suburb will enter a new phase in mid-2017 with the opening of a $73.5-million precinct, Yagan Square, linking Northbridge to the CBD. A steel shade canopy will symbolise the old lake system and the poles of a huge digital tower will signify Noongar language groups. And in the meantime, here’s what else you should check out when you go.